black printing problems

[JrlMPR]

Black printing is barely visible. Color printing is good. I have cleaned the printhead as instructed in the troubleshooting page. I have changed the cartridge and verified the supply level of the ink. 

[Bob_Headrick]

The troubleshooting steps in the document here may help resolve black not printing on your Officejet 6500 e710n.  You may have gone through some of the steps already, make sure you go through all the steps in order up through soaking the printhead as shown in step 8.

If the standard troubleshooting did not resolve black not printing I would suggest removing the black cartridge.  Turn it over and examine the area around the ink port.  There are four orange plastic spots, left over from the protective cap.  Make sure these are flush with the cartridge body, if not carefully trim them flush.  If the plastic nubs protrude they can prevent the cartridge from seating properly.  Before replacing the cartridge in the printer dribble a few (maybe four) drops of hot water into the ink port in the printer and two drops into the ink port on the cartridge then snap the cartridge back in position.  

[BichonBistro]

Bob Headrick, happy to see you on this forum.  You helped me resolve a tricky hp990 driver problem years ago--those babies are still printing!  LOVE that model 🙂

[JrlMPR]

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, the problem occured halfway thru the contents of a cartridge. At first I thought it was the cartridge itself so I replaced it but the problem persisted

[Bob_Headrick · Accepted solution]

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@JrlMPR wrote:

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, the problem occured halfway thru the contents of a cartridge. At first I thought it was the cartridge itself so I replaced it but the problem persisted

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The troubleshooting steps in the document here may help resolve black not printing on your Officejet 6500 e710n.  You may have gone through some of the steps already, make sure you go through all the steps in order up through soaking the printhead as shown in step 8.

Even if the black stopped printing partway through a cartridge it would be helpful to go through the troubleshooting.  For example, blocked vents in the cartridge would typically cause the black to appear to run out at about 1/3 of the cartridge life.  A clogged printhead could occur at any time, and soaking the printhead has resolved this issue for many.

[JrlMPR]

I did clean the vent before and did the cleaning of the printhead but I decided to do it all over again with more attention given to the vent. It finally printed properly!